What diet program should I choose?

If you really want to lose weight, you should not diet at all. Diets, if anything, are inclined to make you fatter. This has been very well studied, and there is little doubt. Read one or two of Michael Pollan’s books about food, take his advice and eat real food, mostly plants, and not too much. That is a way of life, not a diet.

Here is a diet comparison chart.

The best thing you can do is eat less and move around more. I’ve never had any luck with any program. When I quit eating junk, tried my hardest to eat smaller portions, started drinking lots of water and working out 4 to 5 days a week, the weight fell off.

@Marina- thank you for the link.

@pdworkin and @knitfroggy- how do I address the limited time I have to work out?

@TLRobinson The standard advice is to incorporate more activity into your daily life. Park further away from the stores or school, take stairs instead of elevators, etc. Also, a 10 or 15 minute walk two or three times a day is effective. You could also try exercise DVDs and weights at home. Housecleaning like a fiend helps too. It all does make a difference along with the eating less and eating less crap.

Learning refusal skills.

Having said all of the above, if you do want a diet program, I found that Weightwatchers is pretty reasonable, effective and incorporates many of the relearning tools Michael Pollan and others advocate. You might also find the support of a group useful if you want to lose a lot of weight.

Take stairs, not elevators, park as far away from your destination as is practicable, walk the dog, carry your groceries instead of using a cart, etc.

@pdworkin-great suggestions, thank you.

The best thing you can do to lose weight: Eat less and exercise.

MAKE 15 minutes just for you to get in your exercise. It’s there if you look for it. Go for a walk, go up and down some stairs, just move! I have friends who exercise during commercials when they watch TV. They march in place, do crunches, lift weights, etc. What will happen is that you’ll want to exercise more and you’ll make more time to do it.

Are you in school? If so, when you’re sitting in a lecture, sit up straight and suck in your abdominal muscles for a slow ten count. Release and do it again. If you work at a desk job, see if your boss will let you sit on a balance/exercise ball instead of a regular chair. This makes you core muscles do some more work during the day.

There are many websites that have support groups for people trying to lose weight. everydayhealth.com and sparkpeople.com are two that I know about. I know that the everyday health website is free, and I think sparkpeople is, too.

Take the word “diet” and use it for you instead of looking at it as a struggle. I think of my diet as simply being the food that I eat on a given day, not as a specific plan of foods that I can or can’t eat. Learn about portion control and what a serving is. (You’ll need to click on the printable portion guide link on that page.) Once a week, or every two to three days, try to cut out one food that isn’t great for you and replace it with one that is.

In summary, I’ve lost 70 pounds (so far!) by eating right-sized portions, not depriving myself entirely of treats, drinking water and coffee instead of pop, exercising and finding a support group. I did this while working and going to pastry chef school, so I understand busy. You can do this!

You can eat what you like but half of the amount you would normally serve yourself of each item.

You could make a routine of breakfast foods, allow yourself whatever you want for lunches and then also keep a routine of light and fibrous dinner foods.

You could make a routine of better foods for all three meals and give yourself one day a week to eat and drink whatever you like.

I pretty much follow @hungryhungryhortence‘s program for weight maintenance;yogurt and fruit or toast for breakfast, brown bag work lunch and lightish supper most days of the week, more lax on the weekends.

You don’t sound like this is really a priority. If you are not truly committed to making substantial changes in your lifestyle, you will not see substantial changes in your weight.

You can be organized and focused, and you can make time for exercise. But you have to decide that this is worth it.

Why do you want to lose weight? How badly do you want to lose it?

@hungryhungryhortence- I like your suggestion, a lot!

@nikipedia- you’re right, to a certain degree. I NEED to make it a priority but I haven’t. My health is the main factor, and my desire to look is second.

I appreciate you “keeping it real.”

@TLRobinson: It’s worked for me several decades now.

Breakfasts
Yogurt
Banana
Pecans, Almonds or Brazil nuts

or
Egg/Omelet/Oatmeal/leftover piece of meat
Banana
nuts

Lunches
whatever I can scrounge but half of how much I’d really like to eat

Dinners
used to be half a bag of spring greens, tomatoes, avocado, shaved carrots, cilantro leaves, boiled egg white or chunks of cheese and sometimes thin slices of meat or fish and 1 slice of frozen pizza or buttered toast.
I have to get back to this

One day a week
Eat and drink whatever I want, how much I want

Consumer Reports periodically does a review of diet programs. Weight Watchers generally comes out at or near the top for overall balance and sustainability, and surprisingly for me SlimFast for folks who do best with strict regimentation.

I found this website that summarizes the CR reviews and has some other good weight loss info as well.

For videos with eating and exercise tips as well as a complete eating/menu/recipe plan, visit dietchallenge.usatoday.com

Going on a diet sounds like going on vacation; it has all the preparation and build up but not as much fun. I’ve tried a variety of fad diets and meal substitutions. I always felt like I was punishing myself. This is what I found that works: Drink 8 glasses of water plus another glass for each 10 pounds you’d like to lose. Don’t eat outside of a kitchen/dining room. Increase your activity and manage your portion size. Make sure there are at least four hours from the time when you finish eating dinner and plan to go to sleep. You asked for a diet program——change the channel and select strategies for a better relationship with food.

@peachpit Terrific answer! Welcome to Fluther!

Thanks. This is fun. :)

Yes. Be warned; it is highly addictive. I used to be a functioning member of society and now…..

@peachpit-GA! Thank you.